Ted Berrigan
Ted Berrigan (15 November 1934 - 4 July 1983) was an American poet. Life Youth Berrigan was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on November 15, 1934. After high school, he spent a year at Providence College before joining the U.S. Army in 1954 to serve in the Korean War. After 3 years in the Army, he finished his college studies at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma, where he received a B.A. in English in 1959 and falling just short of the requirements for a M.A. in 1962. Berrigan was married to Sandy Berrigan, also a poet, and they had two children, David Berrigan and Kate Berrigan. He and his second wife the poet Alice Notley were active in the poetry scene in Chicago for several years, then moved to New York City, where he edited various magazines and books. The New York School A prominent figure in the 2nd generation of the New York School of Poets, Berrigan was peer to Jim Carroll, Anselm Hollo, Ron Padgett, Anne Waldman, and Lewis Warsh. He collaborated with Padgett and Joe Brainard on Bean Spasms, a work significant in its rejection of traditional concepts of ownership. Though Berrigan, Padgett, and Brainard all wrote individual poems for the book, and collaborated on many others, no authors were listed for individual poems. Death Berrigan died on July 4, 1983, following years of health problems compounded by amphetamine use and an avid addiction to diet pills. Writing ''The Sonnets'' Poet Frank O'Hara called Berrigan's most significant publication, The Sonnets, “a fact of modern poetry.” A telling reflection on the era that produced it, The Sonnets beautifully weaves together traditional elements of the Shakespearean sonnet form with the disjunctive structure and cadence of T.S. Eliot’s Waste Land and Berrigan’s own literary innovations and personal experiences. The product is a composition, in the words of Berrigan’s editor and 2nd wife Alice Notley, “is musical, sexy, and funny.” Berrigan was initially drawn to the sonnet form because of its inherent challenge; in his own words, "the form sort of stultifies the whole process writing." The procedure that he ultimately concocted to write The Sonnets is the essence of the work’s novelty and ingenuity. After attempting several sonnets, Berrigan decided to go back through what he had written and take out certain lines, a line from each work until he had 6 lines. He then went through the poems backwards and took another line from each until he had accumulated 6 more lines, 12 lines total. Based on this body of the work, Berrigan knew what the final couplet would be; this process became the basis for The Sonnets. Addressing claims that the method is totally mechanical, Berrigan explains that some of the 77 sonnets came to him "whole," not needing to be pieced together. The poet’s preoccupation with style, his concern for form and his own role as the creator as evinced by The Sonnets pose a challenge to traditional ideas about poetry and signify a fresh and innovative artistic approach. The book recognizes the eternal possibility for invention in a genre seemingly overwhelmed by the success of its traditional forms . By imitating the forms and practices of earlier artists and recreating them to express personal ideas and experiences, Berrigan demonstrates the potential for poetry in his and subsequent generations. As Charles Bernstein succinctly comments, “Part collage, part process writing, part sprung lyric, Ted Berrigan’s The Sonnets remains…one of the freshest and most buoyantly inspired works of contemporary poetry. Reinventing verse for its time, The Sonnets are redolent with possibilities for our own.” Recognition In 2005, Ted Berrigan's published and unpublished poetry was published together in a single volume edited by the poet Alice Notley, Berrigan's second wife, and their two sons, Anselm Berrigan – a poet – and Edmund Berrigan, a poet and songwriter. Publications *''A Lily for My Love''. Providence, RI: privately published, 1959. *''The Sonnets''. New York: Lorenz & Ellen Gude, 1964; New York: Grove, 1966 ** enlarged edition, New York: United Artists, 1982. *''Seventeen'' (by Ted Berrigan & Ron Padgett). New York: privately published, 1964. *''Living with Chris''. New York: Boke Press, 1965. *''Bean Spasms'' (by Berrigan and Padgett). New York: Kulchur Press, 1967. *''Many Happy Returns''. New York: Corinth Books, 1969. *''Doubletalk'' (by Berrigan and Anselm Hollo). Iowa City, IA: privately published, 1969. *''In the Early Morning Rain''. London: Cape Goliard, 1970. *''Memorial Day'' (by Berrigan and Anne Waldman). New York: Poetry Project, 1971. *''Train Ride''. New York: Vehicle Editions, 1971. *''Back in Boston Again'' (by Ted Berrigan, Tom Clark, & Ron Padgett). New York: Telegraph Books, 1972. *''The Drunken Boat''. New York: Adventures in Poetry, 1974. *''A Feeling for Leaving''. New York: Frontward Books, 1975. *''Red Wagon''. Chicago: Yellow Press, 1976. *''Clear the Range''. New York: Adventures in Poetry / Coach House South, 1977. *''Yo-Yo's with Money'' (by Berrigan and Harris Schiff). Henniker, NH: United Artist Books, 1979. *''So Going Around Cities: New and Selected Poems 1958-1979''. Berkeley, CA: Blue Wind Press, 1980. *''In a Blue River''. New York: Little Light, 1981. *''A Certain Slant of Sunlight''. Oakland, CA: O Books, 1988. * "Poems from 500 American Postcards." Talisman: A Journal of Contemporary Poetry and Poetics, 3 (Fall 1989): 82-97. *''Selected Poems'' (edited by Aram Saroyan). New York: Viking / Penguin, 1994. * The Collected Poems of Ted Berrigan (edited by Alice Notley with Anselm Berrigan & Edmund Berrigan). Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy the Poetry Foundation.Ted Berrigan 1934-1983, Poetry Foundation, Web, May 3, 2014. See also *New York School poets *List of U.S. poets References *Clark, Tom. Late Returns, a Memoir of Ted Berrigan (Tombouctou Books, 1985) ISBN 0-939180-35-9 *Waldman, Anne. Nice To See You: Homage to Ted Berrigan (Coffee House Press, 1991) ISBN 0-918273-11-0 *''GAS #3'' (Ted Berrigan Issue) Tom Clark editor (1991). Notes External links ;Poems *Ted Berrigan profile and 2 poems at the Academy of American Poets. * Ted Berrigan 1934-1983 at the Poetry Foundation. *Ted Berrigan @ EPC Electronic Poetry Center * Ted Berrigan at PoemHunter (24 poems). ;Books *Ted Berrigan at Amazon.com * ;Audio *Ted Berrigan at PennSound. *Ted Berrigan at YouTube ;About * Ted Berrigan at NNDB *Bohemian Ink: Ted Berrigan *Berrigan in Chicago Category:1934 births Category:1983 deaths Category:People from Providence, Rhode Island Category:American poets Category:Writers from Rhode Island Category:Writers from New York Category:Writers from Chicago, Illinois Category:Writers from Oklahoma Category:People from Tulsa, Oklahoma Category:People from New York City Category:New York School poets Category:Iowa Writers' Workshop faculty Category:20th-century poets Category:Poets Category:Sonneteers Category:English-language poets